THE PLAN IS COMING TOGETHER.

      VERSUS     

Winning is contagious.

Much like Ronald Reagan’s trickle down economics, the same seems to be the case with the Connecticut Whale. After a horrendous January where they were winless, going 0-6-3-2, the Whale benefitted from the conditioning stints of Wojtek Wolski and Jeff Woywitka and won five of their first six games in the month of February before dropping a 2-1  loss to Bridgeport last Sunday.

WOLSKI, WOYWITKA, GOING, GOING, GONE…

WOLSKI, WOYWITKA RECALLED FROM WHALE

*           *           *           *

Had been on Two-week Conditioning Stints

Connecticut Whale general manager Jim Schoenfeld announced today that the parent New York Rangers have recalled forward Wojtek Wolski and defenseman Jeff Woywitka from their conditioning loans to the Whale.

SPOTLIGHT: BRENT THOMPSON

BY: Bruce Berlet

Brent Thompson could be in line for a Coach of the Year daily double.

The former Hartford Wolf Pack defenseman was named ECHL Coach of the Year last season after leading the Alaska Aces to the regular season and playoff titles. Now Thompson is a leading contender for AHL Coach of the Year after guiding the Bridgeport Sound Tigers from seeming oblivion to challenging the Connecticut Whale for the Northeast Division lead.

SPOTLIGHT: WOLSKI AND WOYWITKA

BY: Bruce Berlet

Mission accomplished.

That’s the consensus of left wing Wojtek Wolski and defenseman Jeff Woywitka after playing six games in 10 days with the Connecticut Whale in two-week conditioning assignments from the New York Rangers. The stints don’t officially end until Wednesday, but the Whale don’t play again until Friday night at home against the Springfield Falcons.

11-OF-12: AND IT DIDN’T SEEM LIKE ENOUGH

      VERSUS     

“All good things must come to an end,” goes the old English proverb. For the Connecticut Whale their five-game winning streak ended in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers before 7,693 at the Webster Bank Arena Sunday afternoon.

David Ullstrom used defenseman Tim Erixon as a screen just 37 seconds into overtime and fired it over the glove of Chad Johnson (15-10-5, 40 saves) to finish off a game that had both teams digging and clawing to get any traction at all through the game’s first 60 minutes.

STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED: BUT NOT TOO MANY

      VERSUS     

There is something about the entire New York Rangers organization in 2011-2012…they just seem to dialed in to winning…even when they’re losing.

In New York, the Rangers are tops in the Eastern Conference and are three points behind the President’s Trophy leading Detroit Red Wings. The Rangers have four games in hand.

In Greenville of the ECHL, the Road Warriors are fifth overall in their conference and just five points out of the top spot in their conference and are 6-3-0-1 in their last ten games.

NOW THAT’S MORE LIKE IT

      VERSUS     

Amazing what the changing of the calendar and some personnel changes can do for a team. After the Connecticut Whale spent the month of January making up for being so good from mid-November to mid-December by not winning a game, the team has found their footing again and won their third straight 3-1 over the visiting Syracuse Crunch Tuesday night.

“It wasn’t a great start. Fortunately we picked it up toward the end there and got some big goals on special teams that helped and we were able to get our two points tonight,” Said a much more relaxed Whale head coach Ken Gernander. (Chad Johnson) was real strong again in net (Tuesday) and made some big saves.”

SPOTLIGHT: WOLSKI AND WOYWITKA

BY: Bruce Berlet

Taking one step back in hopes of making two forward is a familiar refrain.

Left wing Wojtek Wolski and defenseman Jeff Woywitka are hoping that theory works in their quests to get more ice time with the New York Rangers or another NHL team.

Wolski and Woywitka accepted requests from the Rangers on Thursday for two-week conditioning assignments with the Connecticut Whale and then helped beat Albany and Hershey to end an 11-game winless streak (0-6-2-3) since the start of 2012 and gain a share of the Atlantic Division lead with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, whose 11-game point streak (10-0-0-1) ended with a 3-2 loss to Manchester on Saturday night.

LOSING THE LOSING

      VERSUS      

Well there that wasn’t so hard now was it?

The newly remodeled Connecticut Whale fell behind early but stuck to their game plan and scored two power play goal en route to a 3-2 win over the Albany Devils Friday night in front of 4,028 at the XL Center.

With Aaron Voros released from his PTO and Randy McNaught having been sent to Greenville to join the Road Warriors in the ECHL and the input of Rangers vets Wojtek Wolski and Jeff Woywitka added for a two-week conditioning stint, the Whale had an entirely different feel both in terms of the level of talent on the ice and the way they played the game.

CLEANING UP THE ROSTER

Eric Christensen, 28, spent two weeks on a conditioning stint with the Connecticut Whale and has now been traded along with a conditional seventh round pick in the 2013 draft to the Minnesota Wild for 24-year old forward Casey Wellman who has 12g, 14a in 26 games with the Houston Aeros.

Wellman is 6′, 173 pounds and has 2g, 5a in 14 games for Minnesota this season and contributed 4g, 9a in 41 games over the three seasons he’s spent with the Wild.

Christensen, meanwhile had not played for the Rangers since Dec. 17 and has just 5pts (1g, 4a) in 20 games this year. The very soft spoken center-man has played in 132 games with the Rangers and put 58pts on his ledger (20g, 38a) as a Blueshirt.

John Tortorella was never really much of a fan of Christensen, an Edmonton native.  Yes, Christensen is lights out in the shootout, but he has not been able to show any sort of consistency at any other part of his game. Perhaps in Minnesota he will find his game.